On the morning of March 1, 1983, in the remote Alaska hamlet of McCarthy, 25-year-old Amy Lou Ashenden Nash was one of six townspeople killed in a deliberate ambush as residents gathered for the weekly mail plane. Amy had married Charles Tim Nash in January and the newlyweds were among the victims when shots rang out across the snow-bright settlement. The gunman, Louis D. Hastings of Anchorage, arrived armed and prepared, having stockpiled weapons and ammunition, and killed six people—Amy Nash, Tim Nash, Maxine Edwards, Harley King, Les Hegland, and Flo Hegland—while wounding two others.

A bleeding survivor managed to get to the air and summon help; troopers flew in and seized Hastings as he tried to flee on a victim’s snowmachine. Hastings was arraigned March 2, 1983, on six counts of first-degree murder plus attempted murder and assault charges. Court records note a planned attack, large quantities of firearms and ammunition, and sentences imposed that amounted to essentially a lifetime behind bars.